The Joplin Globe
Joplin, Missouri
Nov. 19, 1964
John Benjamin (Benny) Carl, 14 son of Mr. & Mrs. C.V. Carl, 606 South Hall Street Webb City, was killed instantly when he was struck by a hit and run car in front of his home at 6:30 o'clock Wednesday night (Nov. 18) Young Carl was pronounced dead on arrival at Jane Chinn Hospital in Webb City where he was taken followin the hit an drun accident.
A Webb City man, identified as Kenneth Hughey, 29, 511 South Elliott Street,
who had reported his 1856 Lincoln stolen between 6:30 & 11 o'clcok
Wednesday night, was arrested for investigation in the hit and run case at
(:30 o'clock Thursday morning by
Polce Chief J. Earl Bunch and Trooper John Perkins.
Hughey was still being held late Thursday night. However, no charfges had
been filed,according to Sheriff George Hickam. Questioned at Webb City police headquarters
Thursday morning and again at the county jail Thursday afternoon. Hughey denied any
knowledge of the crime and refused to take a lie detector test.
A $10,000 bond was set for Hughey, Sheriff Hickam said. The bond was set on an
investigation of hit and run in which a fatality occurred.
A Webb City woman, an acquaintance of Hughey's was arrested Thursday
afternoon for questioning.
Sheriff Hickam said the woman was given a lie detector test and then
released.
An intensive search was conducted for the 1956 Lincoln Thursday, but the
car was not found.
Members of the Webb City police department, the Jasper county sheriff's
office and the highway patrol searched mine shafts and wooded areas in an
effort to find the car. An airplane, carrying a membert of the sheriff's
office, also join the search.
Sheriff Hickam said all of the mine fields in the area had been checked for
the car. The search was called off at dark Thursday night, but will be
resumed early this morning.
The 1956 Lincoln is painted pink and white and carries an Oklahoma license
tag. Officers said considerable pink paint was found at the scene of the
accident. Also four letters from the hood of a Lincoln automobile were
found at the scene along with bits of broken glass.
Young Carl was crossing the street to his grandmother's, Mrs. Bessie L.
Carl, 627 South Hall Street
to summon his father for supper when he was struck by the car.
From personal knowledge of Frances Jones-Murph
It was a cold, drizzley nite.... fog was just beginning to sit in when
Benny was killed.
At that time there were no sidewalks along Hall St. Just the paved road
and a path along the edge of the road where people parked their cars and
also walked.
Had Benny walked along the path to the inside of the cars, as he usually
did, he would not have been hit. That evening, for some reason, he chose
to walk to the outside of the cars and along the edge of the paved road.
Benny had already been to his grandmothers house and his Dad had told him
to 'go on home and tell your Mother I'll be right there' when he was
killed. He was hit in front of Pete & Aileen Cummins house (next door to
his own house) and either knocked or dragged 68 feet landing at the edge
of the driveway next door to Pete & Aileen
The Joplin Globe
Joplin, Mo.
Tuesday march 30, 1965
Webb City Death.....
4 PERSONS CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGHTER
A manslaughter complaint was filed jointly against four persons late Monday
afternoon in Western distict magistrate court in Joplin by Assistant
Prosecutor Leo W. Schrader in connection with the hit-and run death of a
Webb City boy November 18.
The complaint was filed after an automobiile, believed to be the
hit-and-run car, was found by divers Sunday in a water-filled mine cave-in
at the northeast edge of Webb City in a search that claimed the life of one
of the divers.
The body of Roy Luther Hunt, 23 years old, 410 South Elliot Street, Webb
City, who was assumed to have drowned or have been killed in a cave-in of
one of the lateral shafts in the mine Sunday, had not been recovered
Monday afternoon when efforts ceased for the day. Weather permitting,
search efforts will resume today.
Named defendants in the manslaughter complaint were Courtney Lee McDonald
33 yrs. old, 215 West First Street, Webb City; Kenenth Eugene Hughey, 30,
Joplin, Route 3, Mary Kettner 39 , Joplin Route 1 and Margie DeCamp, 35 825
North Devon Street, Webb City.
The complaint was filed in connection with the death of John Benjamin Carl,
14, who was struck by a car as he crossed the street in front of his home,
606 South Hall Street, Webb City the night of November 18, 1964
Judge Charles E. Teel, Jr., set bond at 10,000 for each of the four. They
are being held in the Jasper county jail at Carthage and were expected to
be arraigned before Judge Teel today.
Officers believe three of those charged were riding in the car, and were en
route to pick up Mrs. Kettner when the Carl boy was struck.
Hughey, owner of one of the two cars found in the cave-in, reported that
his car, a 1956 Lincoln automobile, was stolen between 6:30 and 11 o'clock
the night of November 18. Hughey was questioned about the hit-and-run
death last November but was not charged at that time.
Webb City Police Chief J. Earl Bunch said considerable pink colored paint
was found at the scene of the accident, in front of the Carl home, as well
as four letters from the hood of a Lincoln automobile. A fender-skirt from
the sunken automobile was removed by divers, and has been sent to the state
laboratory for paint testing. The body must be raised before a comparison
can be made of the letters on the hood. The license tag was removed and
identified as a 1964 tag belonging to Hughey.
During an attempt to raise the Lincoln Monday afternoon, the rear wheels,
differential and rear section of the drive shaft tore free of the car. The
rear end assembly shown in the accompanying photograph, was lifted to dry
land, but the rest of the vehicle remained in the water.
The other automobile found in the pit, a battered and rusted 1949 model
Cadillac, was raised from the water Monday afternoon. The owner, Dale F.
Divine of Jasper, reported to Joplin police that the car was stolen in
Joplin on June 24, 1957.
Two Joplin men, Charles Mills, 2929 West Fifteenth Street, and Jerry
Campbell, 1515 Wall Ave.
accompanied Hunt into the water Sunday. After the divers discovered the
two cars, Hunt was seen starting into one of the lateral drifts. Mills
attempted to lead him away. It was not certain what happened after that,
since visibility was poor, but Hunt never returned to the surface. A
search was conducted, but his body had not been recovered Monday afternoon.
Divers were members of the Show-me Diving Club, composed of residents of
the district.
The search began Sunday after Webb City polcie received a report of an oil
slick on the top of the water in the mine cave-in, called the Daylight
mine. Roy Wasson, 729 High Avenue, Joplin, president of the diving club,
was one of those who participated in the search. Jim Triplett of Webb City
and Duane Allen of Joplin assisted in the search for Hunt.
In an earlier incident involving the mine, on June 23, 1958, the body of a
Joplin woman was found floating in the cave-in, a death which has never
been explained.
Three Webb City youths who reportedly went to the mine to "sight their
rifles" discovered the body of Mrs. Hazel Sheets, 36 years old, of Joplin.
The youths, thinking at first the object was a bundle of rags, fried a shot
into the body and struck it with a rock, turning it over.
After the body was recovered from the water, an autopsy showed that Mrs.
Sheets had been dead before being thrown into the water.
The woman had last been seen the night before at a Joplin bar, it was
reported. Several persons were questioned at the time, but no charges were
filed.
A photo accompained the above article
Watery Search....Shown in the three photos here are two Joplin scuba divers
and the battered remains of automobiles they helped drag from the caved-in
Daylight mine, near Webb City, Monday in the search for a car sought by
police in connection with the hit-and-run death of John Benjamin Carl, 14 of
Webb City. The divers are Jerry Campbell and Duane Allen, members of
Show-Me Divers. One photograph shows the body of a 1949 Cadillac raised
Monday that was stolen in Joplin in 1957. The third photograph shows the
rear-end assembly of a 1956 Lincoln torn from the car as it was bing lifted
from the mine. The car sank back into the water.
submitted by: Frances Jones-Murph